Re: BOOKS: Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty

> Other books on beauty: Also just published--_The Mass Market Woman_, which> discusses Western beauty ideals and how some men and women seek cosmetic> surgery to conform to those ideals rather than to explore their individual> creativity. I heard an interview with the author on NPR last week. Naomi> Wolf's _The Beauty Myth_, an excellent book which deconstructs the very> idea of female beauty as a cultural tool of sex role enforcement. And,> Paula Begoun's series _Don't go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me_, uses> chemistry and science to attack bogus cosmetics claims and to talk about> what skin care products actually do work. She has become wildly popular on> the Internet and on television, a good example of science going mainstream.

I strongly recommend to everyone: _The Red Queen_ by Matt Ridley (1993). It
covers the evolutionary origins of beauty, and other selection behaviors that
are the direct result of the biological shift to sexual reproduction.